


Zoo

by bambirosesavage



Series: Yuri's Angels [3]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Child Neglect, Established Relationship, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Foster Care, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Married Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Past Child Abuse, Retired Victor Nikiforov, Zoo, kid yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 22:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bambirosesavage/pseuds/bambirosesavage
Summary: The podium family goes to the zoo. Really, that's it.





	Zoo

“What are you doing, angel?” Viktor squatted down beside his foster son. Yuri lay face down on the carpet in the back room, which had quickly become his playroom. Coloring books, crayons, cards, toys, games, and puzzles littered the floor around the boy.

Yuri shrugged his little shoulders and turned his head towards the coach but didn’t say anything.

Viktor patted his narrow back. “Are you feeling yucky?”

“No,” mumbled the boy.

“Are you sleepy?” The man pushed the child’s hair back to see his face better. Yuri’s big green eyes didn’t look glassy, and his forehead didn’t feel hot. Viktor frowned. “What is it, Yura?”

“I don’ wanna color no more,” Yuri complained.

Viktor laughed as the worry drained out of him. “Well, you don’t have to color if you don’t want to. What do you feel like doing?”

Yuri shrugged again, still prone on the floor.

“You have lots of toys. Should we get your blocks out? Or,” he tried again when the child didn’t answer, “we could put together a puzzle. Where’s the one you and my Yuuri were doing the other day? I know you like that one.”

“No,” Yuri whined.

Viktor grinned. Gingerly, the man lowered himself down onto the carpet so he was  face  to face with the toddler. Yuri giggled. Viktor wrinkled up his nose. Yuri copied him. He stuck out his tongue. Yuri did it, too. Viktor winked. Yuri blinked, and Viktor laughed at him. “I know what you need.”

“What does he need?” Yuuri asked, coming into the playroom. He had been emptying the dishwasher of their dinner plates from the previous night.

“We need to play outside,” Viktor decided.

Yuri perked up. “Outside?”

In truth, the family didn’t spend much time outdoors. They worked inside and trained inside. Viktor walked Makkachin at least four times a week, but really, that was about it. None of the toys they’d bought Yuri were considered outdoor toys. Even so, there was no reason to keep the boy cooped up in the house all the time.

“It’s still so warm,” Yuuri remarked as they stepped into the back garden once they all had  their  shoes and jackets on. The yard was quite small, and even cramped when all three people and Makkachin were outside. A few square feet of grass enclosed in a high wooden fence comprised the outdoor property. Yuuri wished they had some flowers or produce or even a tree to brighten the tiny yard up. Yuri didn’t seem to mind the garden’s barren landscape. He was busy chasing the poodle around in circles.

“I know,” agreed Viktor. “I’m not sure what’s going on with the weather. Just think, it was snowing last week, and now we don’t even need coats.

“I like it.”

“Then so do I.”

A screech from Yuri attracted their attention. Yuri was lying on the ground with his hands over his face, trying to ward off Makkachin, who wagged her tail as she licked his face through his fingers. “Nasty!” shrieked the child as he giggled.

“Makkachin’s not nasty,” Viktor said as he pulled the dog away from the boy. “She’s giving you kisses because she loves you.”

“Stinky,” Yuri insisted. He sat up and rubbed at his face with the hem of his shirt.

Yuuri wiped his face clean with a baby wipe, and the child relaxed. Even though Yuri had laughed when the dog licked him, Yuuri knew the little boy was a bit sensitive when it came to being dirty. Their attempt to finger paint with him earlier in the week had failed miserably. Yuri had done okay at first, only whining a little when Yuuri helped him dip his finger in a pot of purple paint. However, once Yuri saw that the paint had collected and dried under his fingernails and around his cuticles, he erupted into tears that only ebbed when he was sat in the bathtub with hands scrubbed clean. Needless to say, finger painting wasn’t something either Yuuri or Viktor were willing to try again anytime soon.

“There you go!” Yuuri tucked the soiled wipe into his pocket. “All clean again!”

The boy didn’t  waste  time saying thank you, but instead ran off to join Viktor, who was playing fetch with his dog. The skater knew he should probably be stricter with Yuri about saying please and thank you, but figured he was having so much fun outside, and he hadn’t cried at all when Makkachin kissed him, Yuuri could let the pleasantries slide.

“Do you want to throw the ball for her, angel?” Viktor held Makkachin’s ball out to the boy. Yuri looked at it for a short moment, taking in the blades of grass clinging to it, stuck on with dog drool, and hid his hands behind his back. “That’s okay.” Viktor smiled. “You can pick which way I throw it.” Makkachin whined impatiently and spun in a circle, her eyes on the ball. “What do you think?”

“There!” Yuri pointed, Viktor threw, and the dog bounded off.

“Here,” Yuuri said after a few minutes of watching them play. He retreated into the house and returned with a bottle of bubble soap.

“Oh, good idea, my love.” Viktor kissed his cheek as he unscrewed the cap. Makkachin and Yuri looked up at him curiously, the child clinging to his pants leg.

“What that?”

“Bubble.” Yuuri loaded the wand.

“Like bath time?”

“Sort of.” He blew the wand and sent a stream of bubbles into the air. Makkachin immediately barked at the bubbles and chased them around the yard. Yuri, however, stood transfixed with his mouth open and his eyes wide. He watched the soapy balls float around him without saying a word. He was too entranced to notice Viktor taking his picture.

“What do you think, Yura?” Yuuri asked once all the bubbles popped. “Aren’t bubbles neat?”

“More!” Yuri pleaded, hopping up and down. “More, more, please! Do more!”

When Yuuri blew the next round of bubbles, Yuri joined the poodle in chasing them around, trying to pop them. The men happily blew bubbles for the child for the rest of the afternoon, even after the old dog got tired and lay down at Yuuri’s feet to nap. It took a lot of convincing to get Yuri into the house and ready for dinner when the sun began to set. He was sweaty and the knees of his pants were covered in grass stains, but Yuri was undoubtedly happy, and really, that was all that mattered.

“You know,” Yuuri said later that night as they got into bed, “we really should have Yuri play outside more. He needs the exercise and the sunshine while it lasts. Maybe we could take him to the park or something. I don’t think he’s been around kids his own age much. How do you think he would do?”

“I’m sure he would do just fine.”

“I don’t know,” Yuuri worried. “He’s shy. I don’t want him to get overwhelmed.”

“He’ll always be shy if we don’t let him meet other people,” Viktor reasoned. “Going to the park would be a good experience for him.”

“We could bring Makkachin with us. He really likes playing with her. He’s an animal lover.”

“Why don’t we take him to the zoo?” Viktor suggested, sitting up in bed. “Yuuri, he would love the zoo! You haven’t been to the zoo yet, have you? We should go while the weather is still so nice. There’s a children’s zoo and horseback riding and everything.”

“That’s a great idea, darling!” Yuuri enthused. “We could teach him the names of all the animals and what sounds they make. Just being out in public with other people should help him get used to people besides you and me. He’ll be so excited. When can we go?”

They planned the excursion for that Friday. Yuuri could skip training for one day. He could go in on Saturday if he needed to. They decided not to tell Yuri about the trip ahead of time. They weren’t sure if the child knew what a zoo even was, so there wasn’t any point in telling him. Even so, Yuri seemed to know something was out of the ordinary Friday morning when Viktor woke him up and got him dressed.

“Vik-tor.” Yuri eyed him warily as the coach rummaged around in the dresser drawers.

“Yes, angel?” Viktor fished out a hunter green shirt and matched it up with a pair of jeans. He’d checked the weather on his phone, and while it was predicted to be sunny, Viktor didn’t want Yuri to be cold. His body was so skinny and tiny, he must get cold easier than Viktor or Yuuri. Would a sweater be better or would that  overheat  him? “What is it?”

The boy shrugged. “Just Vik-tor.”

The coach smiled at him and held up the shirt. Yuri raised his arms, but didn’t return the smile, still eyeing him suspiciously.

“Good morning,” greeted Yuuri when they entered the kitchen for breakfast. “Sit down. I’m almost ready.”

Viktor got the toddler settled in his highchair and poured him a cup of milk. Yuri leaned over the side of the highchair so far that had he been a healthier size and weight, he may have tipped over. The coach pulled him back to sit correctly.

“Where Makk-in?”

“Oh, I’m sure she’s around here somewhere,” Yuuri answered. “I already took her out, Viktor. She should be good for the day.” He brought the breakfast dished to the table and set utensils out.

“This smells wonderful, my love,” Viktor praised. “Have we had this before?”

“I don’t think so. I wanted to do something a little special today, so I made French toast. It’s pretty popular in America, and Phichit used to make it a lot when we lived there. He used to put maple syrup on it, but I think cinnamon and sugar work better. It’s less sticky that way, too,” he said with a glance at the little boy, who was poking at his bite sized pieces of bread with curious fingers.

“It squish,” Yuri announced. He pinched a square of egg soaked bread, licking off the sugar that stuck to his hand.

Yuuri laughed. “It is, huh? I may have used to much egg, but it still tastes pretty good, I think.”

“It’s delicious.” Viktor took a big bite, humming happily. Yuri copied him and finally took his first mouthful of breakfast.

“What do you think, Yura?” Yuuri asked while Yuri chewed. He wanted to introduce the child to new foods whenever possible. Yuri was becoming a better eater, though vegetables were pushed around his plate more than they were eaten. The French toast, however, seemed to be a hit.

“Yummy.” The boy smiled a sugary smile. They ate in contented silence for a while, Viktor leaning over to wipe Yuri’s sticky lips every once in a while.

“Angel,” the skater said once everyone’s plates were empty, “do you want to do something fun today?”

The child narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out if the man was trying to trick him. “Skate?”

“Not today.” Viktor grinned. “We’re doing something else today.”

“Skate fun,” Yuri insisted, making his foster parents happier than he realized.

“It is fun,” Yuuri agreed, “but we skate all the time. We’re going to do something different today.”

“We’re going to the zoo!” Viktor blurted. “Have been to the zoo before?”

Yuri shrugged.

“Do you know what a zoo is?”

Again, Yuri shrugged.

“I think you’ll really like it.”

* * *

The car ride to the zoo was a bit nerve wracking for Yuuri, who stared out the window as he overthought the trip. There was no guarantee Yuri would enjoy the zoo at all. He hoped that by going on a weekday, the zoo would be less crowded, but he couldn’t be sure of that either. Yuuri didn’t really like crowds; they made him nervous. He didn’t want Yuri to be scared. This was meant to be a fun experience. Now that he was thinking about it, maybe the zoo would be too scary for a three-year-old. Some of the animals were big.

“Do you think this is a good idea?” Yuuri asked.

“Of course,” Viktor answered without hesitation. “Kids love the zoo. He’ll love it.” He patted his husband’s knee when the skater still looked nervous. “Yura,” he called, looking at the child in the rear view mirror, “are you excited for the zoo?”

Yuri didn’t look up from his lap where he was playing with the cuffs on his sleeves, but gave a dutiful “Yeah” in answer.

“See?” Viktor said, as though that settled the matter. “Everything will be fine.”

The zoo, while not as crowded as it could have been, was still bustling with people. Yuri’s thumb crept into his mouth as he watched family with no fewer than four kids ran past them, one girl  narrowly  avoiding bumping into Viktor’s arm.

“You’re okay,” Yuuri comforted. He took the boy’s hand and led him towards the entrance. Viktor kept his hand on Yuri’s head to shield him from being knocked into. Yuri kept his eyes on his shoes as they bought their tickets and walked through the entrance gate.

“Where do you want to go first?” Viktor asked.

Yuuri studied the map they’d gotten with the tickets. The zoo was huge and sprawling. There were so many exhibits to choose from, and he didn’t know which ones Yuri would like. “The children’s zoo,” he finally decided. It was designed for little kids. Surely Yuri would like it.

“Great!” Viktor scooped Yuri up. The child wrapped his arms around the man’s neck, but turned his head to look around. “It’s right over there.”

The strong odor of hay mingled with animal droppings filled Yuuri’s nose as they approached the fence that enclosed the children’s zoo. Farm animals milled around the little wooden house that stood in the center of the enclosure. Goats and cows looked around disinterestedly at all the children running about and patting them. Chickens flocked together in one corner, timid, while a couple of geese waddled proudly, as though daring the kids to pet them.

“Oh, look at the baby donkey!” Viktor enthused. “Let’s go say hello.” They picked their way over to the small animal standing close to her mother. Yuri watched Yuuri gently stroke the baby donkey’s ears. He concentrated hard on what his guardian was doing, his little eyes narrowing.

“She’s so soft,” gushed the skater. The little donkey pawed the ground and butted her head against Yuuri’s hand when he stopped petting her. “She’s a sweet girl. Come pet her, angel.”

Yuri hesitated for a moment, but he allowed Viktor to set him down. He grabbed a handful of Yuuri’s pants, nervous. Both adults knelt down so they were level with the little boy.

“Be soft,” Viktor told him as he guided the boy’s hand to pat the donkey. “Remember, she’s just a little baby, so we have to be sweet.”

Yuri barely brushed his fingers against the animal’s fur. He pulled his hand back against his chest and looked up at Yuuri, a tiny hesitant smile on his face.

“Good job, angel!” the skater praised, kissing the top of the child’s head, and Yuri’s smile grew.

Encouraged by his success with the donkey, the boy toddled around the enclosure with the men trailing around behind him, telling him the name of each animal and making sure no one accidentally ran into the small child. Yuri was intimidated by the cows. He didn’t cry or run away from them, thankfully, but he hid his face against Viktor’s legs and refused to pet them.

“Maybe they’re too big for him,” the coach suggested as they pushed him towards the chickens instead.

Surprisingly, Yuri loved the geese best. Both Viktor and Yuuri hung back to give the notoriously temperamental birds a wide berth. They quietly exchanged their own experiences with goose attacks from their childhoods, or, in Viktor’s case, early adulthood, while Yuri made friends with the geese. He stroked their long necks softly and carefully just like his foster parents taught him, and soon the entire gaggle of geese flocked around him with their necks extended, eager to be petted.

Once Yuri had met all the geese and avoided all the cows, they left the petting zoo for the rest of the exhibits. Yuri held onto their hands as he toddled between the men. Slowly, they made their way over to the giraffes. Even though the exhibit was quite close to the children’s zoo, it took them a while to get there because Yuri’s short legs could only take tiny steps. Both Yuuri and Viktor liked to carry the little boy, holding him close and feeling the comforting weight of him, but Yuri was too old to be carried around all the time, so they stayed as  patient  as they could and allowed him to walk.

The giraffes seemed to amaze Yuri. They were so tall and strange and alien to him. He showed no recognition when Viktor told him what they were. He only stood and stared up at the giants above him.

“Giraffes are from Africa,” Viktor told him as Yuuri took pictures. “Africa is really far away on the other side of the world.”

“How they get here?” Yuri asked.

“I’m not sure,” Viktor answered not entirely honestly. He didn’t want to tell his three-year-old foster child about animals being captured and taken away from their homes. “I’m happy they’re here though. They look happy to me. Do they look happy to you?”

“Got spots,” was Yuri’s answer, which the coach took as a yes.

Viktor and Yuuri let Yuri take the lead as they wandered from place to place. They went from animal to animal according to Yuri’s erratic choice, bouncing from exhibit to exhibit like pinballs. Every time they stopped to look at an animal, they would tell him its name, first in  Russian, then in English, then Japanese. Yuri repeated the words back to the best of his abilities or else simply ignored them. 

He didn’t much care for the birds in the aviary. He turned away from them and stuffed his fingers in his ears. “Big loud,” he complained.

“It is loud in here isn’t it?” Viktor had to yell to be heard.

“Noisy,” said Yuuri.

“Noisy,” Yuri agreed and allowed the Japanese man to lead him out. 

The rest of the morning passed in much the same manner. Viktor and Yuuri took turns taking surreptitious photos of  Yuri as he gazed at the various animals. He liked the monkeys and apes and stood with his little nose pressed against the glass as he watched them jump from branch to branch or chase each other around. The polar bear also interested him. Yuuri got a great shot of the child’s alarmed expression when the bear plunged into the little lake in its enclosure.

“What is it doing?”

“Going for a swim,” Yuuri answered him.

“Why?”

“I guess because she wants to. Maybe it’s her bathtime.”

Yuri gave the bear a skeptical look. “No. Bathtime after dinner.”

Yuuri rolled his eyes and laughed. “Oh yes. How silly of me. It’s too early for a bath, right angel?”

Out of all the animals, the lions were Yuri’s favorites. They amazed him so much that he insisted they go back to look at them twice more that morning.

“They so big,” he commented, starstruck. “They still cats?”

“Yes. Have you ever seen a cat this big before, Yura?” Viktor asked.

The boy shook his head in wonder. 

Around noon, they ate at the zoo cafe. It was a small, warm building near the entrance of the park. Little tables and chairs filled the room and spilled out to the sidewalk outside. They chose a table, and Yuuri got to work unbundling Yuri from his jacket while Viktor ordered at the counter at the other side of the room.

“What do you think, angel? Do you like the zoo?”

Yuri stood up on the bench beside his guardian. “I seen lions and bears and monkeys and goats,” the boy announced, reciting the vocabulary words Viktor had taught him. “And…” he trailed off and screwed up his face as he tried to remember the right word. “What is ugly horse?” 

Yuuri cocked his head to the side, not sure if he’d understood the child’s Russian. “Ugly horse?”

“Yeah.” Yuri bounced a bit on his toes and waited for Yuuri to fill in the missing word. Unfortunately, the skater had no idea what the boy was talking about. He stared into Yuri’s bright blue-green eyes and came up blank. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re saying,” the man apologized.  

Yuri didn’t seem too upset by Yuuri’s lack of understanding. He’d discovered an abandoned straw wrapper on the table and was now totally focused on tearing it into tiny pieces. 

Yuuri couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he watched the little boy play. All around the cafe were other families with their children, many of whom were of an age with Yuri. The skater also couldn’t help but notice how lively the other children were. They were laughing and running around. Their faces held a healthy, happy flush that Yuri’s didn’t have. Maybe not yet, Yuuri told himself. Not yet, but it will happen. He’s getting healthier every day. He’s growing. He’s happy. Those are all good things. 

At least, he thought, Yuri didn’t usually have tantrums. Yuuri watched as a young boy’s parents tried to control the screaming fit their child was having. The boy was older than Yuri, but he screamed and cried and kicked at his parents. The father apologized sheepishly to the people around the raging child while the mother tried to calm him down.

This wasn’t to say Yuri’s behavior was perfect. Far from it, in fact. He tended to be quiet, but Viktor and Yuuri had faced their fair share of disruptive outbursts from the child. He was getting better about eating, but just the day before he’d gotten angry about being given carrots and cried for the longest time. Viktor tried to assure him that these tantrums and mood swings were typical for a three-year-old, but Yuuri wasn’t so sure. He had to wonder how much of this sort of behavior was a result of his previous upbringing.

“Look it!” Yuri called joyfully. He held up a handful of tiny shreds of white paper. “Rice!”

“Wow! Where did you find rice?”

“Maked it.”

“You did?” Yuuri  gasped, his eyes wide in wonder. “That’s amazing! You’re amazing, Yura.”

“What has our amazing Yuri done now?” Viktor asked as he returned to the table, a tray of pizza in his hands. 

“Rice!” Yuri thrust the paper balls onto the tray as the coach set it on the table. “My make. I do it.”

“It will go well with our pizza,” Yuuri joked and helped himself to a slice. 

Viktor huffed. “There is nothing healthy on that menu. The only vegetable is the lettuce on the hamburgers and even then it looked questionable to me. I would have done better with a salad. You as well, my love, but it really wasn’t an option today.”

“That’s okay,” Yuuri replied, his mouth full of pizza. He released a contented sigh and swallowed his bite before he set himself to task cutting Yuri’s cheese pizza into bite-size pieces. “We eat healthy all the time. We can have a cheat day.”

Viktor smiled around his own mouthful of food. “I know how you are with cheat days. This will be a cheat day, not a cheat week.”

“It was my birthday!” Yuuri protested, knowing exactly to what his husband ws referring. “I can’t be expected to diet on my birthday.”

“No, of course not.” Viktor’s eyes crinkled fondly not only at the memory of Yuuri’s birthday cake binge, but at Yuuri himself. Dieting was hard but necessary for him during training. He couldn’t have the carbs he loved or the fatty foods he craved. Yuuri tried hard not to complain too much about the steamed, bland vegetables and lean proteins, but he jumped at any excuse to eat junk food. It was adorable.

Yuri seemed to enjoy the pizza, too. Every tiny piece his foster parents gave him had to be dissected before being eaten, and he ended up with tomato sauce all over his mouth and cheese under his fingernails. Viktor and Yuuri didn’t let him eat an entire slice by himself, knowing that that much food would likely make him sick and ruin his day, and the boy cried when the food was taken away from him.

“I want it!” Yuri sobbed as Viktor cleaned him up and changed his diaper in the bathroom.

“I know.” The man used a damp paper towel to wipe the pizza stains off his face. “You’re not hungry anymore though. We stop eating when our tummies get full so we don’t get sick.”

Yuri was too little and upset to fully comprehend what Viktor was telling him and continued to cry. Viktor held him and waited for him to calm down before emerging from the restroom to where Yuuri was waiting for them.

“I think we’re feeling a little better now,” Viktor said.

“That’s good,” Yuuri said as he helped the boy back into his jacket. Yuri’s face was still red from crying, but he tears had been washed away. “We still have a lot of animals to say hello to.”

They took him to see the rest of the big cats, hoping to cheer him up after the lunch fiasco.   Yuuri carried the boy on his hip as they meandered through the crowd to reach the cheetahs, panthers, and tigers. The zoo was becoming more crowded as the afternoon patrons arrived. Luckily, Yuri didn't seem overly bothered by the crowd. He rested his head against Yuuri’s shoulder and twirled a loose strand of thread from his jacket around his finger. Yuuri held onto his husband's hand as Viktor led them through the throng to reach the desired exhibit. Viktor's hand was dry and soft in his, and he could feel the coolness of the metal of his wedding ring. The heat of Yuri's breath against his ear helped to keep him warm. He really, really didn't want to give Yuri up, even with all his eccentricities and health problems. They were a family, just like all the other families at the zoo that day.

“There we go,” Viktor announced, and Yuuri plopped the child down in front of the glass window separating them from the animals within. “It’s a cheetah!”

The cat was lying down so that its back was pressed against the glass, paying absolutely no mind to the visitors crowding around it and taking photos. Yuuri could see the definition of the the cat’s spots. Its fur looked fluffier than the skater would have expected and it stood up on end, though he expected that was because of the chilly breeze that had started up. He’d have to make sure Yuri was warm enough. So far though, the little boy didn’t seem to be noticing the cold much. He rubbed his tiny finger against the window, trying to pet the sleeping cheetah.

“He sleeping,” Yuri told them, looking up at his guardians. “Why is he sleeping?”

“Well, you take a nap after lunchtime, don’t you?” Viktor supplied. “I bet he just ate lunch too.”

“Oh.” Yuri nodded and went back to stroking the window. “He a pretty kitty. I like him.”

“Are you petting the kitty?” Yuuri asked.

“Soft,” was the child's answer. “Be soft.”

“That's right.” Viktor smiled from ear to ear as Yuuri snapped yet another picture of the boy. “You have to be soft when you pet the animals, don't you? Good job, angel!”

As always, Yuri lit up at the praise. His smile was proud when he held his arms up to Yuuri, asking to be held again.

It seemed to be nap time for all the animals. The panthers next door to the cheetahs were all asleep, though farther away from the window instead of pressed right against it. The tigers slept too when the little family went to see them. 

Yuri whined in disappointment at their lack of activity, but the men could see that he was ready for a nap as well. Yuuri couldn't see his face, but he could feel the way the child seemed to grow heavier in his arms. He stopped fidgeting and trying to peer around for the next exhibit and instead let his head rest on Yuuri’s shoulder, apparently contented. His breathing became steady and even, and soon enough his thin little arm slipped its place around Yuuri’s neck to dangle at his side.

“Well now what?” Yuuri laughed as he swiveled to show his husband the boy's sleeping face. “Should we call it a day?”

“Not yet,” Viktor decided. “There's still a few animals we haven't gotten to see yet. Let's wait for him to wake up so he can say goodbye to his new animal friends. Besides, I want to take him to the gift shop.”

“You do know his naps usually last about two hours, right?”

Viktor shrugged. “He may wake up early. It is rather noisy here.”

The couple, eager to get out of the cold wind, decided to wander the reptile house and the aquarium while Yuri slept. The aquarium wasn’t as crowded as the rest of the zoo. It was dark and much quieter than it was outside. Yuuri and Viktor wandered from tank to tank. The Japanese man knew more about the fish than his husband did, so after Viktor read him the placard that told what sort of fish was held in each tank, Yuuri added any other information he knew about that type of fish. 

“Why do you know so much about fish?” Viktor asked him.

“Fish are interesting.” Yuuri shrugged his free shoulder, careful not to jostle Yuri. 

Viktor wrinkled his nose up. “No they aren’t. Fish are weird.”

“They’re not weird. You’re weird.”

Viktor just shook his head, unable to explain himself. “I don’t dislike them, but they’re fish, my love. Fish are boring. It’s a fact.”

Yuuri rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say. Here, can you take him for a minute? My neck is starting to hurt.”

Yuri didn’t stir as he was shifted out of Yuuri’s arms and into Viktor’s. The coach cradled him against his chest, bouncing slightly to keep him sound asleep. He automatically tucked his nose against the boy’s head and breathed in the sweet scent of his hair. The majority of the families with small children that he saw used strollers to escort their children around. Yes, using a stroller may be easier, especially now that Yuri was sleeping, but Viktor was till glad he and Yuuri had chosen not to use one. He liked holding Yuri, keeping him close and feeling his warmth. The boy was small now, but he wouldn’t be for long, not now that he was getting healthier and stronger. He would grow up, and Viktor wouldn’t be able to hold him any more. It was only natural, but, even though he was happy for the child to be healthy, the thought of no longer being able to hold and cuddle his child saddened Viktor. 

“Ooh, darling, come look at these jellyfish. They’re so cute!”

Viktor looked up to see Yuuri pressed against a tall, cylindrical tank filled with little purple jellyfish and smiled. 

True to Viktor’s prediction, Yuri’s nap didn’t last as long as they usually did, and he woke up after only forty-five minutes of sleep. Viktor tried to set him back down, but the toddler was still groggy and complained, not wanting to walk. “Okay, angel,” Viktor gave in immediately. “I’ll hold you. Come here.”

“You’re going to spoil him,” Yuuri warned, but, as Viktor pointed out later, the skater was the one who picked out the big plush lion for Yuri’s souvenir. 

Yuri hugged the new toy to his chest and refused to let the cashier put it in a bag. “Thank you,” he mumbled into the lion’s yellow fur.

“Oh, you’re welcome, Yura,” Yuuri cooed, caressing the boy’s chilly cheek. “Did you have fun today?”

“Uh huh.”

“What was your favorite animal?” Viktor asked, looking at the plush lion expectantly.

“Makk-in,” Yuri answered.

Viktor laughed and kissed his cheek. “Good boy.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update this series. I actually started this fic in September, but I kept getting stuck, so it was pushed aside. I have plenty of ideas for the series, but I appreciate any input you can give me. This fic was a request fill. 
> 
> Also, I'm considering taking on an additional beta reader to read my Yuri fics and my BTS fics, so if you are interested in helping me out, contact on Tumblr at bambirosesavage. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


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